http://dvice.com/archives/2008/11/universal_photo.php
Thanks Gary Amundson for pointing me to this outstanding little gadget, that can synchronize your flash to sound which would allow you to capture speeding bullets, etc. VERY cool for $170!
Well, between DP review and other sources, I’m hearing we will see our preorders delivered the first week of December in time for Christmas. I’m preordered as many others, anticipating getting my hands on this new camera and trying out the
a. low noise at high ISO
b. HD video recording
But I’ve had a hard time rationalizing cost; my perfectly good 1DS Mark II could not even fetch $2900 reserve on Ebay when I tried to sell it to cover the cost of the new 5D on preorder. So, I decided to keep the 1DS rather than give it away for $2600.
Why all the buzz? Here’s some great information from blogger TWWilliams
http://twwilliams.com/5d-mkii-faq/
Contents
It’s been awhile since I’ve been able to pickup Showcases, and all of a sudden I got three more at once! One for the nude of Alexis here:
Photography ©2008 Vince Weathermon
This is my pick from the session. Was shot originally standing, rotated her to this “swimming” state. Others from the set I would call “glamour”:
I’ve admired Linnea’s portraiture work for some time now, particularly her maternity work. Her experience as a commercial photographer will certainly lend artistic quality you won’t find in most photographers.
http://linnealenkus.com/blog/2008/02/29/celebrity-portraits-brooke-burke-and-david-charvet/
http://wheredidjakobgo.com is now setup for friends and family to post and comment on the tragedy of Jakob’s death. We appreciate the kindness given to all who knew him.
My young nephew Jakob Weathermon, 20, was killed September 30, 2008 at 5:02pm when he was truck by a big rig in Carson. He and his girlfriend were riding their bicycles through thier green light when the truck struck Jakob as the driver was turning the corner. It is not known whether the driver simply was not looking or if he was unable to see them with a blind spot. The CHP is investigating, but we have no news yet.
Jakob was a wonderful young man, good hearted and finally on the right track to “getting his stuff together”. This horrible loss affects our family so much because it was just 10 weeks ago that our Dad died suddenly; we have just barely begun to deal with Dad’s death and the shock of Jake’s death is overwhelming for everyone. It is so unfair to see such bad things happen to such good people. My sister of course is so traumatized, and fears for her now only son who’s 17 and has seen the loss of the grandfather he idolized, and his big brother too.
Everyone, love your family and friends as much as you possibly can because it may be the only purpose we serve on this earth. The economy, banks failing, bailouts and all that are just structure with no meaning. We would gladly give up all we own to get Jakob back.
Jakob’s funeral services will be held Saturday October 4th, 2008 at 11:00 AM at the Luyben Family Mortuary.
I HATE those little hotshoe adapters for cameras that don’t have a PC socket; they always seem to be sliding out of the shoe, and unreliable with missed flashes. So for the new Norman strobe setup I ordered, I searched for a cord that had male hotshoe on one end, and 1/4 ‘ mono plug on the other. Guess what? Nobody makes them!!!
Luckily I found a fantastic site called http://www.paramountcords.com where they have all kinds of custom cables you can order with their “cable builder” website. You simply choose the connector on the left end, the connector on the right end, and the size/type of cable (coiled or straight, how many feet long) and presto, you can order your cable right on line. This means I have a good sturdy solid connection between my hotshoe and my strobe so no misfires! It cost me $56 and for a heavy duty item like this it’s worth the price!
Well, I bit the bullet and bought the Norman “manual” strobe system because I have never been happy with the ETTL Canon flashes, the output and the inconsistency I couldn’t ever seem to get sorted out.
http://normanlights.com/battery_systems_compkits.asp
The weird thing was I could not find hardly any good definitive technical information (like, what kind of sync cord does this thing need? Do I need an adapter for my Canon hotshoe?)
Turns out the website is unbelievably bad, dead links all over the place. They make some of the finest workhorse portrait/wedding lighting around, but they don’t have much in the way of a marketing department I guess since they got purchased by Promark International.
But it has 400WS, Guide 168 at ISO 100 and should blast some serious light when I do my upcoming Beckman Coulter event. I prefer manual shooting anyway, so this is right up my alley; a portable studio strobe!
This model doesn’t include the built-in Pocket Wizard, but I have 4 of them I can just plug in if I want to use as an off-camera light, bounce, etc. I can’t wait to play with it!!
A colleague asked about finding some flexible clamp solution for doing macros, since even small gusts of wind move the plant beyond the intended plane (when DOF is a big deal it is key to a good flower macro.)
So, I recommended he read this article>
Soil anchor and “plamp” for macrophotography
Introduction
In my search for useful parts for my macro flash bracket project, I also came across some plastic clamps which reminded me of what Wimberley uses for their Plamp® and McClamp uses for their Clamp® and Stick®. Both are basically just clamps on a gooseneck, used to fasten plants (or whatever you are photographing), reflectors, or whatever you need to stay put while you are working. These products do all use the flexible Loc-line® water hose which I used for my flash bracket. The anchor is very simple to make and if you have the parts anyway it takes you no more than 30-60 minutes depending on how fancy you want it to be.
Full story: http://www.thufa.net/jo/misc/m_anchor.htm
Also you could go to Wimberly’s http://www.tripodhead.com/products/plamp-main.cfm and get one for $36 
